


are you an airbender cause you blow me away

by zeromiles



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Avatar the Last Airbender AU, M/M, bar worker and waterbender jeonghan, doctor seokmin, earthbender and pro bender minghao, mechanic junhui, mingyus the avatar, nonbender and bar worker jisoo, nonbender soonyoung, only rated teen bc of language btw, police and aircraft pilot wonwoo, pro bender chan, pro bender jihoon, pro bender seungcheol, republic city is a thing, set before korra but after aang, sorry for shit summary its fun trust me, there u go avatar au, thief hansol, thief seungkwan, to be fair i havent watched Avatar in years
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 17:43:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9396119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeromiles/pseuds/zeromiles
Summary: Mingyu's an Avatar that would rather fall in love than save the world. Minghao's a pro bender who's life could use some excitement.It's a match made in heaven."Teach me how to earthbend, please." Mingyu says."No," Minghao slams the door in his face. His unfortunately pretty, super attractive, extremely hot face.





	1. can avatars complain about saving the world?

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for choosing to read this fic!!! its gonna have slow updates bc im a crap author but i dont intend to abandon this ;))

Kim Mingyu was only seven years old when he discovered he was the Avatar.

Well, not he himself. His coach in firebending, the element he was _supposed_ to be training at. Seven year old Mingyu did not like firebending (it was tiring and made him sweat), and neither did he like his scary looking coach, so as all seven year olds discovering their minds do, he skipped practice.

Because Mingyu's dad was a world-renowned firebender, a great master that firebenders from all over traveled to their small town to beg him to become their teacher (who he all refused, even Mingyu himself!), the coach, afraid of disappointing him, ran all over the town looking for him, and eventually found him playing by the small lake in the forest.

His playing wasn't normal children's play. Mingyu was making the water flow around him, making it race across the grass while not letting a drop of it spill, and basically doing every single thing a trueborn firebender should not be doing.

They called him a prodigy. Only seven years old, and already so proficient at his opposite element! He could even do a little airbending, and the tiniest earthbending. People came around the world to visit small town, but not for Mingyu's father this time. They came for the Avatar.

Mingyu's dad was a wise man, and shooed all of the spectators away, only letting a few trusted, officials in. He knew that all the fame would get to a child's head, or ruin his development, or make him wary of fame that he would, without a doubt get when he was older. So he trained and raised him privately, with the best earthbenders and airbenders and waterbenders as extra trainers in his Avatar duties. And word spread that the next Avatar was awakened, and the world rejoiced that another hero was born.

***

"And they had these big, like _really_ big dragon floats! The men were inside the costume and the guy at the head with the open mouth was a firebender like you! And he blew fire, so it looked like the dragon was breathing fire! Mingyu, it was so cool!"

Mingyu glumly listened to his best friend Soonyoung talk excitedly about the Fire Festival he went to recently, at Republic City, the biggest and best city in the world. Mingyu had never been, always spending his days training to be the Avatar. There was no time for vacation or even just a break in between training, interviews with the press, weekly assessments of his skills (which of, his earthbending was _not_ improving, whatsoever. You would think Mingyu, a firebender, would be second best at earthbending and worst at waterbending, AKA the opposite element of fire, but _nope_. Mingyu was always a special kid.), and still going to school and getting all his work done. Basically, no time to do anything but be the Avatar, which kind of sucked. Mingyu was already eighteen, about to graduate, and the farthest he'd ever gone away from his home was on a middle school fieldtrip two hours up a mountain.

Soonyoung was older than him, already graduated from school and had no plans of going to college or do anything but be a freelance wanderer. It had been his dream since he was tiny, exploring the world. He was a nonbender, but he could dance. Soonyoung'd told Mingyu once that he'd make money off of that: dancing in the streets and getting gigs at festivals and celebrations. It was unstable and unsure, but it already sounded grander than whatever Mingyu would be doing with his life. What was the need for an Avatar in this day and age anyways? The Nations were at peace, there were no wars or major disputes unless between politicians. It was honestly just a title, but Mingyu had to spend his entire life training for it anyways.

Soonyoung was bright-eyed as he explained in extreme detail to Mingyu, who wouldn't accept anything less, about the festival and Republic City in genera, for the next hour or so. Mingyu was crouched down next to him, caught on his every word. He could almost imagine the skyscrapers of the city himself with how many times Soonyoung had been there and sent pictures of.

Soonyoung leaned back on the grass when he was done. "Dude, if you want to go there so bad, why don't you just like, ask your dad to go? You're an adult already. He can't keep you cooped up in this dunghole of a town forever."

Mingyu lied down next to him. "I think he plans on it, with the way things are going." He sighed. "Not until I become like, the most competent Avatar that ever lived."

"That's bullshit." Soonyoung complained. Mingyu never whined because Soonyoung complained enough for the both of them. "Let's go ask him right now. I'm gonna do it."

"You're gonna do what," Mingyu deadpans, but it's too late. Soonyoung is already running across the lawn to the main house, and Mingyu knows nothing's going to stop him when he gets into one of these moods.

"Uncle," Soonyoung slams open the sliding door to the tea room where Mingyu's dad is resting and a reading a novel. "Let Mingyu go to Republic City. Please. I'll go with him, he won't get lost or anything, you don't need to worry!"

Mingyu groans inwardly. "Soonyoung, it's oka-"

Soonyoung cuts him off even louder than before. "He's literally never left his house before in his eighteen years of life! He needs to live! Make friends! Get a social life! Not just save the world from whatever it needs saving from-"

Mingyu's dad cuts Soonyoung off this time, and Mingyu gulps, ready for the angry tirade. "Actually," his dad said. "That's not a bad idea."

Mingyu and Soonyoung look at each other in awe. The housemaid that stepped in when she heard yelling looks like she's about to faint. The world is misaligned, the sky is green, and Mingyu's dad is going crazy.

  
***

Minghao jogs down the stairs leading to the first floor of his apartment, grabbing his coat from the couch. Well, technically the only floor. He didn't think the attic he renovated into his bedroom counted as a floor. And not really his apartment. He shared it with the others after all. It's just that they all had separate houses of their own too, and only really used the place during training or group comps.

He goes out into the street and locks the door, breathing in the familiar smell of the smog and street food booths of Republic City, his city. He nods at the vendors he's become friends with thanks to never learning how to cook and starts down a familiar road. He reaches his destination in no time: Republic City's outdoor steampunk machinery warehouse, every modern day engineer's dream.

Minghao surveys the airships the police use that are being constructed or designed or fixed in awe. He's never actually been inside one, and this place is the closest he's ever been to them.

Motorcycles and automobiles are everywhere too, people scurrying around grabbing parts and tools that Minghao has never even seen to build the machines, He watches in amusement as a guy in a gas mask twists something wrong and has gasoline spurt on his face. He seems used to it. _Probably what the gas mask is for_ , Minghao muses.

Then he finds what he's looking for. "Jun," he calls, and a bleach blonde in welding goggles turns his back on a blue diagram of probably the next design of aircrafts for the police force to smile at Minghao.

"Oh, hey." Jun smiles at him, and wipes the grease off his hands onto his super expensive looking mechanic jumpsuit, which probably costs more than Minghao's entire house and everything in it. Minghao feels his fists tighten. Jun's never had to worry about money and how he treats things like he has, and it's just a tiny bit annoying. Minghao doesn't mention it though. His bitterness shouldn't affect the way he sees Jun, especially because he doesn't mean any harm. It's just how he was raised, to not be worried about the conditions or consequences, just like how Minghao was raised to worry. Minghao can't be petty about it.

Besides, money isn't a problem anymore. It was only a concern when he was young and his parents were going through a rough time. Everything was fine now.

Jun is waving at him and he zones back to the real world. "Hello? Earth to Minghao?"

"Uh, yeah." Minghao says. "I'm here."

Jun snorts. "Why'd you come? You need anything?"

"No," Minghao says. "I always come. Nothing better to do than bother you."

"You can train," Junhui points out. "And you never bother me. Wanna see my latest project?"

Minghao ignores the _ba-dump!_ in his heart as Junhui says that and steps forward a bit, and Junhui spreads his arms out in front of the blueprint he was leaning over earlier, grinning like a maniac. He only ever got this hyped up for machinery, and sometimes Minghao's matches. "It's a new design for an aircraft. I've been tweaking it for a few months, but I think it's at it's final form right now. Nice, right?"

Minghao doesn't know much about engineering, but he knows that the aircraft in the drawing is high tech. And _good_. It's massive, and there are intricate details in every square of the grid. "It's great," He says sincerely. "Another model for the police?" Jun had designed the second, fourth, and twelfth models of the aircrafts used by the city's police force, the most a single person has ever done. This would be the fifteenth, and Jun's fourth. Another new record.

"No," Jun says, surprising Minghao. "This is just for me. A personal project. I mean, if they wanna use it and think it's good enough, they can. More money for me! But nah, I made it with me in mind." Jun surveys the print like a proud mother watching her child get an award at school. "Gotta have more warlike capabilities if I want it for fighting."

He thinks that's the coolest thing ever, but Minghao isn't gonna say that outloud. He can't inflate Jun's already big enough ego. "Hey," He says. Jun looks up. "There's another match tonight. Are you gonna come?"

Jun smiles, and Minghao feels his heart melt just a little bit. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

  
***

"So Mingyu's dad is sending him halfway across the world to the best and biggest city in the Nations, just to train more?" Soonyoung nods and sets his head down on the table with a sigh. "Man, that's fucked." Jeonghan says in disbelief.

Mingyu rolls his eyes at Soonyoung and Jeonghan. "I didn't expect anything otherwise. Besides, this _is_ a good experience for me, getting trained from the most talented earthbender in Republic City. And he's my age! And I _do_ suck at earthbending. Republic City is like, the home of earthbenders and metalbenders."

Jeonghan chews on a tangerine piece. "Actually, it was built on the remnants of an old Fire Nation colony, but glad you're being positive about it."

Mingyu stares at the both of them expectantly. "You guys are still gonna come with me, right?" His voice has a little tilt of concern, and Jeonghan and Soonyoung catch it immediately.

"Of course," Soonyoung says. "I'm your best friend! And I love going to Republic City. Your dad's paying, right?"

Jeonghan straightens his back and stretches. "Well, not like I have any hobbies or anything. There better be some cute boys at the Capitol."

  
***

The lights twinkle brightly. They're so bright, Minghao can only see if he squints. He can't see the audience at all, which is good so they won't distract them while in the match. And he knows Junhui is there. He promised he would come, and Minghao trusts him.

Seungcheol turns toward the three of them, Chan, Jihoon, and Minghao himself, and smiles his classic leader smile. "We can do this guys. Don't be nervous. I've got a good feeling about today."

Maybe the good feeling was their winning streak of nine matches in a row, but Minghao doesn't ruin the pep talk. It motivates him anyways. He straps his helmet in place for the nth time, and together, they step out onto the ring.


	2. it turns out jihoon is gayer than originally planned.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New characters appear. Like a lot of them.  
> (also 300 hits and 40 kudos already??? im very. puddle on the floor atm thank u guys so much)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowoowowow thanks for all the nice feedback on chapter one! i didnt think many people liked seventeen AND atla together but i guess not :)) also i really just wrote 3k words in one chapter..... im gonna die

The "hey, someone is here" bell gave a little _ding!_ as a disgruntled looking lady walked in the police box. Wonwoo looked up from the papers he was signing and smiled politely. "Hello ma'am, what can I do to help you today?"

The lady didn't return his smile, but just sniffed haughtily. _Hey_ , Wonwoo thought. _We're doing all this dirty work to help the citizens, but you treat us like this?_ Wonwoo wanted to see how this lady would react if she knew what stuff the enforcers were doing behind the scenes. It made him almost want to quit being a policeman. "I'm a store owner," She started, sniffing again. "And people have been stealing from my booths."

Wonwoo wrote that down on a notepad. "Where are your booths located, ma'am? And what do you sell? What has been stolen so far?"

"Right on the main street by Yue Bay. There's a good view of the statue of Avatar Aang there, so many people always crowd the place, probably making it easier for thieves. I sell bread, many kinds of it. They're pretty easy to steal, you just grab a pack and go. So far, only about six small packages of custard bread, but I want this to stop soon."

"Of course, ma'am." Wonwoo replied, scribbling it all down. _Honestly, she herself said the bread was easy to steal, so it's her fault, right?_ "Okay ma'am, I'll station a lookout at your stand by tomorrow at the latest, and we'll look for records on our cameras."

The lady sniffed one last time. "Can't you have one by today?"

 _Well then you should've asked yesterday,_ Wonwoo almost said. Instead, he replied, "I'm sorry ma'am, but we need at least a day's notice before we can find an officer with an empty schedule. We'll have them down there as soon as possible."

And finally, she left. Wonwoo rubbed his forehead. He wasn't going to live through four more hours of this.

Of course, the bell rang again a minute later. _Ding!_ Wonwoo hated that fucking bell. He was about to scream _Get out!_ to the next lady that came complaining about her stolen goods until he looked up and immediately became flustered.

"Hi Officer Jeon!" Seokmin smiled warmly at him, holding a bag of what Wonwoo presumed to be medicine. "Nice to see you again. You look tired, are you okay?"

Wonwoo was pretty sure Lee Seokmin was the actual sun. The room always became warmer whenever he entered, and he brightened up everyone's days. "I'm good, Doctor Lee. Just, a tough day you know? Tough customers. I don't get paid enough for this job."

Seokmin smiled sympathetically at him. Wonwoo guessed he knew a thing or two about annoying customers, being the town's best doctor in the biggest hospital. "I see. That sucks! Hope you have a day off, and a raise." He set the bag on the table. "Another delivery for the civil law enforcers."

Womwoo peered inside, and frowned. It was drugs. He couldn't tell which kind because of their blocky containers, but if it was for the police, it couldn't be good. "Doctor Lee, they always ask you to bring this stuff, don't they?" He lowered his voice. "I hope you know that we're the justice force, but we're not always the best."

Seokmin shrugged. "I know they're not using them for proper medical purposes like they say they are, but what can I do? I can't say no to the police."

Wonwoo sighed. "I suppose you can't." He took the bag and put it under the desk to bring to headquarters later.

Seokmin started leaving. "Have a good day, Officer Jeon." Wonwoo gave a half-hearted wave, and started signing papers again.

  
***

  
Seungkwan threw the bread on the table. "Here. Two for each of us."

Sofia squealed in joy. "You got cheesy bread!"

Seungkwan smiled. "Did I? I just grabbed whatever. Glad you like it though."

Hansol started ripping through a piece of cream bread. "Nice dude," he said, giving Seungkwan a thumbs up. Seungkwan let himself feel a little bit of pride in the steal. The lady was a pissy, rude lady anyways. She hardly had any customers due to her blunt attitude and constant sniffing. She wouldn't miss a few pieces of three dollar bread.

Seungkwan only stole from people who deserved it. Not like the poor ladies in the street that sold small articles of clothing or handmade robes, the men and women who owned more popular booths and thought themselves better than everyone else. Newsflash! Everyone is still selling their merchandise! You're still starving just like the rest of us! Nobody was above anyone else in the street economy they had in Republic City.

He watched Hansol and Sofia eat fondly and grabbed a hot dog bread for himself. He would get caught again soon, then shut in the jail for a day ( _The officer in this side of town was too soft to be a real one,_ Seungkwan thought.)with only one crappy meal given to him. He should build up while he can.

Seungkwan finished and stood up from the small table the three of them used for meals. "I'll be heading out then," He said, dusting off his hands. Hansol looked up at him.

"Already?"

Seungkwan nodded and grabbed his thin jacket, grabbing another piece of bread to eat on the way.

"Stay safe. Come back soon."

"As soon as possible, yeah."

He headed out, ducking through the alleyways and between tourists and and the yelling street vendors trying to get said tourists to visit their stalls. He knew the place like the back of his hand, but he must have been losing his grip, as he bumped into some dude with long hair. "Sorry," he muttered.

"It's fine," Long haired dude said. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, thank you." And he brushed past them and headed toward the police box stationed in the middle of the main square.

 _Ding!_ The bell rang as he opened the door. The officer at the desk looked up.

"Hey. I'm back again."

The officer, Jeon Wonwoo (or Jun Wonwoo, or something like that) sighed and pushed up his glasses. "Seungkwan. I knew you'd be coming. A lady reported you for thievery just an hour ago, you know."

"Already? That lady sure moves fast." Seungkwan headed toward the small jail cell in the corner, the one they used to keep the town disrupters in, and opened it with a clang. He'd probably spent half his life in there.

"You're lucky I'm such a nice guy and takes pity on kids my age." Wonwoo complained as he locked the door, only for formalities.

"Yeah, how old are you anyways? Like, nineteen?"

"Twenty. And you're seventeen." Wonwoo waved a file at Seungkwan's face, which probably read something like, _How did you know that?_ "We have a file on every single person who was birthed in the city. You have no criminal record, because I erased it all. You should thank me for that."

Seungkwan untied his shoelace, then tied it again. "Huh, thought the government didn't care about street rats like me."

"We're not _that_ terrible."

"I know. They have you." It would have been sappy, except for Seungkwan's shit-eating grin he had on while he said it. Wonwoo smiled too.

"Ah, yes. Me. My favorite topic. Speaking of me, my time in this box will be decreasing."

Seungkwan nodded. "Yeah, I heard some gossip. The old ladies like you. They were sad you would be leaving. Finally got your pilot license? You gonna pilot those aircrafts downtown, huh? That's cool."

"Thanks." Wonwoo shuffled some papers and looked at him expectantly. "You should lay low, as least _try_ not to get caught. I know you lowered your game because you knew I would let you out."

"I don't think civil law enforcers should be telling me to be sneaky at stealing."

"Civil law enforcers shouldn't be doing a lot of things," Wonwoo replied darkly. "But we still do it anyways."

  
***

  
Republic City was _huge_. Mingyu thought the mountain next to their town was pretty big. It was like a dusk speck compared to Republic City.

Jeonghan was trying to hide it, but he was in awe too. He'd only been to Republic City once, when he was small with his parents, and only remembered it from the baby pictures of him crying because the skyscrapers were "too high". (Jeonghan would kill him and Soonyoung if they'd ever mention it again, so he didn't.)

Soonyoung, however, acted like it was his second home, which it kind of was. His mom was a police officer in the city, and he and his dad came to visit pretty often. His cousin lived here too. He knew all the tourist traps and also all the actual, fun places to go. He probably planned on living here himself when he grew older.

Mingyu glanced at the sheet of paper in his hands, where Soonyoung had scrawled the address of the flat he lived in when he visited. For some reason, he didn't remember the way, so he relied on asking around for directions. Mingyu didn't know what he was expecting.

They were near though, he was sure. Soonyoung vaguely remembered that it "was surrounded by a lot of food stalls... Like a lot of them, and one of them sold some nice ass bagels."

"So," Jeonghan said. "Let's go find that bagel booth. I'm so hungry right now I could eat two sky bison."

"Let's not eat two sky bison," Mingyu, a vegetarian, felt his stomach churn. He knew that Jeonghan would never, but still. Ew. Eating other animals was pretty gross. But he had to admit, all the food here smelled amazing. Whether it was street udon or dessert cakes, everything looked great. Even the smell of sizzling meat. _You're going nuts,_ Mingyu said to himself. _Think green. Spinach. Cucumbers_. _Bell peppers!_

Soonyoung opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly a smaller figure rushed past him and practically slammed into Jeonghan. Jeonghan opened his mouth in surprise. "Oh! Sorry," The figure (the _boy_ , now that Mingyu could see.) said quietly.

"It's fine," Jeonghan said, smiling politely. Mingyu didn't think the boy even noticed though, he was looking straight down and avoiding eye contact with anybody. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, thank you." The boy quickly left after bowing his head slightly. Jeonghan let his mouth close.

"Well, okay." He said. "That happened."

"Let's go get food now," Soonyoung yawned, acting like this was a perfectly common occurrence in Republic City (knowing it, or more like _not_ knowing it, it probably was.) "I'm starving."

  
***

"Nice job today, guys," Seungcheol removed his helmet and brushed his hand through the hair stuck to his forehead. Jihoon tried not to stare. He was so damn gay. "Practice same time tomorrow?"

Chan, Minghao, and Jihoon all nodded. Not like their opinion would matter anyways, unless they _really_ couldn't go. Which was never, because none of them really did anything but probend. All of them made their living off of their team, the Shining Diamonds. They'd been a team for about two years now, and quickly rose to the top of the top, at least for the teams based in Republic City. He was sure there were teams from all over that were better than they were, but ever since three months ago when the Shining Diamonds beat the at-the-time champions (a group that called themselves Nu'est), they had the title of the best and the two feet tall trophy to prove it.

Jihoon gathered his gear and neatly placed them in his training bag. "I'll be going first, then." He said, putting his shoes on at the door.

The rest looked at him in surprise. Like he said, none of them really did anything other than train and win matches. "You have somewhere to go, Jihoon?" Chan asked.

He nodded. "My cousin is visiting."

"Again?" Minghao snorted. "Didn't he leave like, a week ago?"

"He practically lives here now. But this time he brought friends. And I'm going to show them around and give them copies of their house keys. Soonyoung would lose the keys, so he gave them to me. And he could never show them around, he'd get lost in a minute. Or scammed. Or mugged. He just can't do anything."

"Well, hope you have fun!" Seungcheol smiled at Jihoon, and he thought he might implode right there on the spot. Blow up the fern next to the shoe rack and make Minghao mad, or explode into pieces of brightly colored confetti. "See you tomorrow!"

Jihoon did not in fact explode, just nodded slightly and left the apartment. Late August was technically still summer, but it was getting colder, probably because they were right next to the sea. Jihoon could feel the sweat from practice freeze on him. _If I catch a cold, Seungcheol will kill me._

That inspired him enough to get going to his _actual_ house he let Soonyoung live in whenever he visited, which was frequently. He didn't really mind that Soonyoung was kind of messy or snored loudly at night, because he could always just escape to the training building, and Minghao's half house. But with two other people living there for who knows how long, he might as well pack his bags and go.

Did Soonyoung even remember where the house was? Jihoon swore to god that if he wasn't in by the time he got home, he was going to buy one of the animal-shaped leash things moms buy for their kids at amusement parks.

He walked briskly past the food stalls, but stopped to watch a group of firebenders put on a show. There were five of them, and they all looked pretty young, younger than Jihoon at least. Maybe Chan's age? They flipped and turned and kicked and breathed fire, making the growing crowd go _ooh_ and _ahh_ , and he threw a few dollars in the little collection tin they had in front of them, for Chan. One of them smiled at Jihoon when he noticed, and Jihoon had to admit he was pretty cute. He would never go for the underaged, though. And he was whipped anyways. By Seungcheol.

 _Shut the fuck up, me._ Jihoon thought to himself and walked away even quicker.

"Jihoon, great! We found you!" Somebody yelled, and Jihoon only had time to turn around when a figure jumped on him and almost knocked him over.

"Get off me. Don't tell me you guys were _still_ lost? Didn't I make you write down the address?" Jihoon noticed two other boys behind Soonyoung standing awkwardly. A really tall kid, and a dude with long hair. "Oh. Hi. Nice to meet you, I'm Jihoon. Soonyoung's cousin and unfortunately, his guardian while he's in here."

The long haired boy smiled. "Hi, I'm-"

"That's Jeonghan," Soonyoung interrupted. "And that thing over there is Mingyu."

Mingyu looked insulted. "That thing? I'm your best friend, you fuck."

"I know. I love you. Guys, this is Jihoon. We'll be crashing at his place for like, however long it takes for Mingyu to learn earthbending, so be nice."

"Basically, we're gonna be here forever." Jeonghan smiled at Jihoon again, and somewhere deep inside Jihoon was a little wowed. Jeonghan was really good-looking. And Jihoon was gay as fuck.

"Cool." Jihoon said. "Um, how about we continue this conversation at home, and not in the middle of the busiest tourist street in the city."

"That's probably a good idea," Soonyoung agreed, and the three of them looked at Jihoon expectantly.

"You guys.... Don't know where home is, right?" They all nodded. For their credit, Mingyu looked kind of guilty for Jihoon and Jeonghan looked a bit sheepish. Soonyoung was just Soonyoung. "Okay, then," he paused and wondered what he had done to deserve this. "Just follow me."

When they made it to Jihoon's house, a pretty nice-sized two bedroom, two bathroom apartment, they set their luggage down in the bedrooms (Soonyoung would be in Jihoon's, and Mingyu and Jeonghan together in the other room), Jihoon wrote down the address on three pieces of paper and gave one to all of them, as well as a copy of the house key. Maybe that was a little stupid, giving two strangers free access to his house and everything in it. But he trusted Soonyoung's friends (or at least, Soonyoung's choice in friends), and it wasn't like he had anything expensive in the house except for his gear. And they probably had no use for pro bending equipment anyways.

They all sat down in the living room, and Jihoon made tea. He had about a million boxes of tea in the kitchen drawers and no excuse to drink them until today. "So, why did you guys decide to come to Republic City?" He asked, carrying the drinks on a tray and setting them down.

Jeonghan grabbed a cup and shrugged. "Just cause, I guess. Because Mingyu and Soonyoung was going and I was allowed to go. Also, I heard the cities have better alcohol than in the country."

Jihoon turned his eyes on Mingyu expectantly. He also shrugged. "Well, I'm the Avatar and like, I should be a master of all the elements right now because I'm eighteen but earthbending is really hard I guess and I can only do a little and I _really_ need to learn quick because what if astroids come flying at us tomorrow? And I heard the one of the greatest earthbenders was my age and lived here so-"

"Wait." Jihoon's head was buzzing at all the information trying to cram in his head at once. "What did you say?"

Mingyu blinked. "I heard there was a great earthbender in Republic City and-"

"No no, at the beginning." Jihoon pressed. _Did he just say he was the Avatar?_

Mingyu blinked again. "I'm the Avatar but I don't know earthbending?"

Jihoon almost dropped his cup. "Soonyoung," he almost _yelled_ accusingly at his cousin who didn't seem to find anything wrong with this conversation, "You didn't tell me that your best friend of practically your entire life was the _Avatar_?"

"Wait, I didn't?" Soonyoung sipped his drink. "I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it at least once."

"Oh my god." Jihoon sat back and drank his tea.

"Is there something wrong?" Mingyu asked concernedly. "If you don't like it or something I could leave or-"

"No, it's fine." Jihoon waved him off. "Just a shock, you know? Like, the _Avatar_ is just sitting in my living room, drinking my tea, and is going to be rooming with me for the next few weeks or so. Wow."

Soonyoung smiled. "Great, we're all best friends now! Oh yeah, Mingyu. Jihoon's a pro-bender, did you know that? He's not an earthbender, but he can introduce you to his earthbender teammate or something. He wouldn't mind." Jihoon nodded.

"It's fine," Mingyu said, smiling as well. "I think my dad will disown me if I don't go to the exact person he told me to find, so. I would love to see one of your matches though! I've never seen a live match before, only listened to them through the radios at home."

"Yeah, I could get you guys tickets. In the good seats too. We have a match in a two days, I'll ask my captain and stuff."

"Cool!" Mingyu grinned, and Jihoon smiled back. Yeah, they definitely wouldn't rob his house.

"Yeah, sounds fun." Jeonghan said. "But until it happens, can you show me where the nearest bar is from here?"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> incredible, i introduced like five new characters! sorry this chapter was so long and kind of uneventful. i didnt think i would finish this honestly cause it just kept on dragging on and on and on. i hope you enjoyed it though! u can ask me questions/scream w me abt this on twitter @eggpyo 
> 
> **fyi, mingyu's the Avatar, minghao an earthbender, soonyoung a nonbender, jeonghan a (sucky because he never practices) waterbender, and jihoon an airbender. everyone else's elements (or not) will be revealed in the future, or maybe the tags bc i forgot whether i tagged them or not. ALSO,,, SEUNGKWAN IS A TINY BIT OOC i realized this while rereading but i like it this way lmao


	3. the avatar knows my name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okayyy so. it's been twenty years since chapter two and i honestly have no excuse life is tough guys
> 
> but i checked my stats on accident my misclicking on stats instead of history and like??? this thing has 41 subscriptions!!!!!! people were waiting for the next chapter so i was like YOU KNOW WHAT. I AM GOING TO GET MY LIFE TOGETHER EVEN FOR JUST ONE NIGHT AND WRITE. so i wrote half of this monster today like right now. its not my fave, but stuff progresses. a tiny bit.

Jeonghan shoved himself past the huge crowd of people and managed to snag himself a seat at the bar. He's lucky he was able to get a seat this fast. Usually they were all taken, or had puke on them. The big city was no joke, it seemed every bender and nonbender from the ages 18-26 was in this bar.

The bartenders were busy too, whirling around, preparing drinks and conversing with customers and somehow managing not looking overwhelmed at the same time. Jeonghan could never, which is why his job back at home was at a bookstore. Nobody was in a rush at a bookstore. Not that it mattered now, though. He'd quit because, hey, who knew how long they'd stay in the city? Besides, the owner was a nice old family friend who'd promised Jeonghan a spot anytime he wanted. Not like there were much people signing up for them.

But he'd need to get a job here sooner or later. Money didn't last forever, unfortunately. And Jeonghan's beer didn't pay for itself.

He was dazing off for a little bit when a familiar face appeared in front of Jeonghan. He snapped to attention, and smiled lazily. "Hey, Jisoo."

"Hi again, Jeonghan!" Jisoo grinned at him. "The usual?"

"Yep, thanks." Maybe Jeonghan should be worried that he'd lived in Republic City for a whopping total of eleven days, but the guys at the local bar remembered his face, name, _and_ favorite drink, but he decided to ignore that and focus on Jisoo mixing his drink instead.

Jisoo was cute. His hair was gelled up today, and Jeonghan could clearly see all his piercings. He was wearing the standard uniform of bartenders; a black button-down with black pants and a black apron-like thing. It was cute on Jisoo, which Jeonghan thought was extremely unfair, because uniforms shouldn't look good on anybody.

Jisoo handed him his drink and Jeonghan took a sip. "Thanks, Jisoo." He expected Jisoo to leave to go help the other million customers waiting, but to his surprise, Jisoo leaned forward a little and smiled at him.

"I was wondering, what do you do? Like, besides come here and drink and turn down people who flirt with you. Like, as a job?"

Jeonghan coughed. So Jisoo had seen him turn down gross strangers? He hoped Jisoo think he was taken, or worse, a prude. "Um. I'm like, freeloading right now?" Jisoo raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I used to have a job back home, but then I moved here and now I don't. I have money saved up though. I'll be fine for like, maybe the next month if I don't go on a drinking spree."

"Oh." Jisoo looked disappointed. "Sorry, it's just that there's a few free spots here, and I was wondering if you wanted to work here? I mean, we're friends and all so it'd be fun to work with you and also, staff members get free drinks."

So, Jisoo considered them friends. And he liked Jeonghan, as a friend. And Jeonghan would get free drinks.

Well that sealed it.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Jeonghan stood up and chugged down the rest of his beer. "I'm hired."

***

The door slammed open and Mingyu flinched from where he was listening to the radio on the couch (it worked the best in the living room) and Soonyoung came from the kitchen. "What was that?"

"That" was Jeonghan. He looked drunk. He was holding a bunch of black clothes in his hand, and was brandishing his set of keys like a sword. "What's up bitches, I just got a job."

"Dude, nice!" Soonyoung said while Jihoon, who was coming down the stairs, said "No way!"

"Rude, Jihoon." Jeonghan rolled his eyes and flopped down on the couch, almost tripping on the chair leg. "But I did. It's at the bar downtown, called Andromeda. Have you heard of it?"

Mingyu snorted. "You mean, the one you go to every single day? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have an inkling of what it is."

Jeonghan chose to ignore him. "They had spots open cause one of their workers got married and another moved and whatever else happened, and one of the staff is my new best friend, Hong Jisoo. He recommended me and shit, they didn't care as long as I could pour drinks and look pretty. Both of which I'm fabulous at."

Jihoon was the one to roll his eyes this time. Mingyu found it funny how they'd known each other for less than two weeks and yet had gotten into this friendly cat and dog fight relationship. Sharing a bathroom sure did wonders for friendships. "You couldn't have just agreed to get off your lazy ass and work just for money, right? There has to be some incentive."

"That's what I was thinking," Soonyoung nodded along. "Is this Jisoo guy cute?"

Jeonghan glared at them. "Yeah, he's cute as fuck. Also, I get free drinks."

  
***

  
"How much money does your job make a day anyways?" Seokmin asks him curiously.

Wonwoo thinks about it. "Um, minus all the bills and taxes, about $30,000. Then divide that by twelve. Then divide _that_ by six. Then divide that total by the thirty days of the month. Wow, it's almost like minimum wage isn't it?"

Seokmin laughs, and the sun is shining, flowers are blooming, Wonwoo's favorite team has won the probending championships. Except it wasn't really a joke, because it's true.

Well, not anymore. Once he started flying his very own airship, he'd be making bills. He felt giddy just thinking about it. It had been Wonwoo's dream since he was a tiny kid to be a pilot, and now here he was with his very own license and guaranteed ship.

He should actually be training right now, going in the flight simulators and practicing for actual lift-offs (which he sucked at) and landing (which he sucked even more at), but his flight level was passing and he was already guaranteed and Seokmin was much more fun to hang out with than a chunk of metal, although Junhui would probably say otherwise. And it's not like he was bothering anyone (except maybe Seokmin), because the pharmacy was empty but them.

"What about you?" Wonwoo asks Seokmin in turn. "How much does the best doctor in the city earn?"

Seokmin grins. "Stop saying that. And actually not much? It's all uneven. Flu season gets a lot of people coming in, but of course there will be times when there's only the occasional help-my-kid's-finger-is-stuck-in-the-drawer call."

"And us, right?" Wonwoo fiddles with a package of band-aids. "Don't the policemen call for your aid all the time?" Stupid question, because Wonwoo clearly already knows the answer to that.

Seokmin just shrugs. It's clear that he doesn't like the way this conversation is steering, so Wonwoo shifts the topic away. "Wanna go check out the airships with me?"

"I would love that."

  
***

  
Seungcheol's in a good mood today. Jihoon can tell, because he's humming, and Seingcheol only sings when he's happy or drunk. Or both. Jihoon wants to ask if anything special happened, but Chan beats him to it.

"You're pretty happy today, captain," He comments while stretching his arms. Chan's the only one of them who can't touch his toes for five seconds straight, so he's been trying for the past few weeks with little to no success. He has determination though, which Jihoon can admire because he hardly has any himself.

"Shut up and practice, you small human." Seungcheol replies, but his smile only widens. "Jisoo has a crush."

Jihoon drops his gear, and Chan's mouth forms an _O_ shape. "For real?"

"He hasn't liked anyone since that weird on-off Junhui thing," Chan reminisces. "And that was in high school."

"Yeah, I _know_." Seungcheol's glowing. Jisoo had been his best friend for years, and gave them funding to start their little pro-bending thing when he wasn't even rich himself (although he definitely wasn't struggling). He was close to everyone in the group. "It's a guy named Jonghyun, I think. Jeonghee. Jeonghan? Uh, he has like, long hair."

"Long hair, huh." Chan nods thoughtfully. "Jisoo does like pretty people."

"Wait a second," Jihoon said. Jeonghan? Long hair? "I think I might know who this guy is. And by _might_ know, I think he's like, living in my house. Right now."

  
***

Minghao was late to practice, and he was running. It was sort of ironic, seeing as practice was at _his_ house/training room/dojo? fusion, but he'd lost track of the time with Junhui when they were sampling every single food in the food district. So now here he was, running to his house and praying the rest didn't do much yet.

He reached the apartment, and slowed down his steps to catch his breath. He tugged at the doorknob, but it was locked. _This is new,_ Minghao thought, staring at the handle. They usually left it unlocked during training. He pulled out his keys and unlocked it, then peered inside to see nobody there.

"Um. What the fuck," Minghao said out loud. Was there no practice today? Did he really just run to here from downtown in nine minutes for absolutely nothing? He was certain there was, though. They had a game next week, they usually trained every other day in game season. _I've finally snapped._ Minghao poured himself a glass of water and sat down on the couch.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Minghao raised his head. Maybe there was practice, and it was just him that got the time mixed up. That was probably Seungcheol and the rest. "Get it yourselves, you rotten banana peels!" Minghao yelled at the door. "You all have your own keys!"

There was silence. Minghao wondered what was wrong with them. "Um, Cheol? Jihoon? Chan?" He walked over and peered through the peephole.

_Oh fuck._

Standing in front of Minghao's door was not Seungcheol or Jihoon or Chan or whoever. It was a stranger, looking profusely confused. He was a hot stranger too. Minghao had just yelled at Hot Stranger and called him a rotten banana peel. He wanted to curl up in a ball and set himself on fire. Maybe he should just pretend not to be home?

Which wouldn't work, because he heard Minghao's yelling.

He cursed himself in his head and cautiously opened the door. The stranger gave him a small smile. "Um, hi. Sorry I yelled at you. I, uh. Thought you were somebody else."

"That's okay," Hot Stranger said, and his voice was sweet. Higher than expected, but still rather low. He was much taller than he appeared in the peephole, too. Minghao wasn't short at all, but reached his forehead. "I guess I was pretty unwarranted if you were expecting people, appearing out of nowhere."

Minghao's awkward in social niceties, so he's torn whether to say _It's okay_ or _Oh no, not at all_ when the stranger speaks again. "So! Uh, why I'm here. Well. First off, I'm the Avatar."

Minghao opens his mouth and then closes it. The stranger gauges his response, and getting nothing, he continues. "And like, I'm a firebender, right? Originally, I mean. And I should be good at earthbending too, but I'm not. At all. So I need help, and I heard you were like really good at earthbending and stuff! I even know your name. Xu Minghao. You're famous and everything! So like yeah. Please help me."

Minghao's mom never taught him how to react to things like this. "Um, I'm sorry?" His voice squeaks. "I, uh. Don't really have time for things like helping people." That made him sound like a douchebag. "Like, I have my own life, and I'm really busy, and..." His voice trailed off. "I'm sorry." He finishes lamely at the stranger's disappointed face.

"No, you're right. I shouldn't have tried to just barge in." He says sadly. "But! I will try again. Because I really need to learn. Good day! I'll be back tomorrow!" Minghao watches him bewilderedly as he marches away.

"By the way!" He yells when he reaches the beginning of the staircase. "My name is Kim Mingyu!"

Minghao just nods a bit. He's more than a little confused. Then, he hears a bunch of footsteps, and suddenly his team is surrounding him.

"Dude. What the fuck, you never told me you had a hot friend." Jihoon shakes Minghao's shoulders.

"I don't? He's not a friend." He manages to let out through his confusion. "By the way, where were you guys? I thought we didn't have practice or something."

The guys exchange looks. Minghao doesn't like being left out. "We were meeting my future brother-in-law," Seungcheol says solemnly.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMMENTS KEEP AN AUTHOR GOING LETS TALK ABOUT HOW GYUHAO FINALLY MET

**Author's Note:**

> COMMENT UR THOUGHTS I THRIVE ON ATTENTION  
> ((hey in case u didnt read the tags, minghaos a pro bender with a not so secret identity. mingyu is 3/4ths of an avatar))


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